Copyright at IRSC

IRSC faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to observe the copyright law and guidelines. Federal penalties for violation are strict and pertain to the individual involved as well as the institution.

Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, whereby authors obtain, for a limited time, certain exclusive rights to their works.

The copyright concept is based on the principle that the people who create things ought to have the right to control what's done with them.

Copyright users must obey copyright, patent, or other intellectual property law, including restricted software laws. Respect for intellectual labor and creativity is vital to academic discourse and enterprise. Users may not copy or distribute licensed software. Computer software licensed to the College is protected by copyright and is not to be copied or distributed using any campus computing facilities except as permitted by law. Unauthorized use of copyright is violation of Federal Law. This principle applies to works of all authors in all media including material downloaded from the Internet or obtained from other users, such as graphic materials, music or audio files, and written word. A user must obtain permission from the copyright holder before use. Copyright infringements may expose the College to legal actions. When in doubt, contact the Network Administrator and/or the library.

IRSC Student Handbook

Downloading/sharing copyrighted material from IRSC computers without the author’s permission violates the U.S. Copyright Law and IRSC’s acceptable computer use policy.